Everybody's complaining about potholes during the monsoons, but I really can't figure out why. Potholes are good and we need to congratulate our government for allowing us to keep them for such long periods of time.

Follow me to a dinner party; what do you think everybody's talking about? Why potholes of course. There was a time when people didn't know what to say to each other once they were introduced, now it's so different. Instead of staring at their glasses and getting drunk, they've actually got a common topic: "I just encountered two pot holes on the way here." Says a pretty young thing to a millionaire.

"Two? I've left my car behind in one of them!"

"What car was it?"

"A Mercedes!"

"Are the front seats comfortable?"

"We'll have to ask my driver, he's still in the pothole!"

"Shall we go and pull him out? I've never sat in a Merc!" says the pretty young thing and an instant friendship is formed!

Now just imagine, what these two people would have had to say if potholes did not start them going?

Then there's so much adventure in potholes. A friend of mine who spends most monsoons climbing the Himalayas was grinning the other day: "Bob, there's adventure right here," he said. "You get into a pothole and just like mountain climbing, your whole life is at stake! You're not sure you'll come out with broken limbs or malaria or cholera. No mountain could ever give me such an element of risk. From now on its the potholes for me!"

An American who got off the International Airport grinned at me, "You guys are into water sports in a big way huh?" he asked. "I need to warn our Olympic team about this!"

"About what?" I asked looking round slightly puzzled.

"This," he said, "these mini swimming pools all over. With so much swimming you chaps should walk away, sorry swim away with the gold. Poor Phelps!"

"Potholes," said a government medical college psychiatrist lecturing to his students, "helps make us a tough people. We should be grateful to a government who year after year have helped produce strong countrymen! After a 'falling in a pothole' episode, our people are able to handle overcrowded buses and trains, no pavements, unhygienic slums, overflowing garbage, flooded roads, riots, strikes and bomb blasts!"

"Sir, should we like a letter to the government thanking them for potholes?" asked a bright medical student, who was tipped off to win the gold medal in mental trauma.

"Go ahead," beamed the psychiatrist lecturer, "but be sure to mention my name. I'm doing a paper for the international community to learn from our pothole therapy!"

Like I said, just can't figure why everyone's complaining about potholes. They're good for us and we need to appreciate the government for allowing us to keep them even after the rains have gone..!

SRINAGAR, Aug 6: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has questioned the wife of arrested Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Ahmad Shah in New Delhi when she had gone to meet her husband and has summoned her to bring the property statement to ED office on August 11.
Bilquees Shah, wife of Shabir Shah, told KNS that on Saturday she flew to New Delhi to meet her husband at ED office. “I was questioned by ED officials for about four hours. The ED officials took a written statement from me about my